Dress to Impress
by Suzie's Q
Summary: Lily goes out of her way to impress her best mate, who never seemed to notice her in the way she wanted him to. Muggle AU.


I don't own Harry Potter, Lily, James, or anything else, for that matter. This is what I like to call: Dee comes up with the worst title she could possibly fabricate.

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**Dress to Impress  
**Muggle AU  
Summary: Lily goes out of her way to impress her best mate, who never seemed to notice her in the way she wanted him to.  
Pairing: J/L  
Word Count: 1,495  
Rating: K

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Lily Evans did not look like Lily Evans. Not at all. Petunia had _sworn _that this would make him notice her, that this would work. But she didn't even _look like her, _how was James supposed to pay attention to her? Not that he didn't always pay attention to her. He did. He'd been her best friend since as far back as she could remember, and he really was a great friend. They were as thick as thieves, the two of them, and Lily couldn't say that he didn't pay attention to her. He paid _too much _attention to her, really.

It just... wasn't the right kind of attention.

But she wasn't sure that this would attract the right sort of attention either. Her hair had curled slightly at the end and Petunia had put lipstick and mascara on her, even lending her some clothes to wear. The skirt was pink – _God, pink looked awful on Lily – _and it was lace, which she actually thought was quite nice. The shirt was a nice cut, but a bit low for Lily. She had to admit, it accentuated her favourable chest quiet well, but it was thin and cold and it felt _wrong. _

Lily was used to comfortable jeans, sneakers and a t-shirt, usually a band t-shirt, with her hair in braids. And if she didn't look like herself, how was James ever going to like her?

Petunia was standing in the doorway while Lily surveyed herself in the mirror. "Get that look off your face," she told her coolly, referring to Lily's despairing expression. "You look gorgeous. Besides, you've been pining after that boy for about four years. And you're sixteen and you haven't had a boyfriend. I'm just helping."

"I'm not sure this counts as helping," Lily mumbled worriedly, turning to survey her back.

"It does, you look great. Potter's going to love you."

Lily wanted to mumble that he loved her anyway – which was _true, _just not in the way she wanted him to – but she didn't, because she knew that Petunia would laugh at her. She sighed, simply accepting that her older sister knew better.

She was headed towards her father's garage; James had been given a job there for the summer, since he was pretty great with cars, and he spent all his free time there. That suited Lily down to the ground, because she spent most of her time hanging out there as well, answering phones for her father. James tried to claim that Lily had gotten James the job simply because her father was the owner ("Face it, Evans, you want to keep me around," he'd said, wagging his eyebrows. "If I have any free time, I'll go meet some bird, and you'd hate that, wouldn't you?") but Lily had done nothing of the sort. That being said, she was absurdly pleased.

As she expected, James was there, his legs sticking out from under a car. She grinned when she heard him humming to himself while he worked on the car, and kicked his leg. "Oi, Potter. Come out of there and entertain me."

He appeared a second later, balancing his back on his skateboard, and jumped up at the same time that Lily's heart jumped to her throat. His clothes were old and greasy, and his hair was standing up all over the place, and it was so hot out that he'd unbuttoned his shirt and rolled up his sleeves, and the sight of his well-defined muscles on his torso and arms was really too much for Lily.

She swallowed hard, forcing a smile. She perched herself up on the car, leaning over him. "So what are you working on?"

"Car."

"Go on."

He launched into a very animated explanation of what he was doing, how great it was going to be, and he wasn't looking at her, but that was alright, because it meant Lily could smile at him dreamily, because she loved when he got so excited about these things. He was so vivacious, and she loved it.

Their topic moved on easily, as it always did, and it was a while before he looked at her, really looked at her. "And anyway, I said there was no way you'd go for it, you're _way _too – Oi..." It took him a second, but the grin faded. "Evans, what _happened to you?" _

Her stomach plummeted, and her cheeks went scarlet, but she forced herself to smile. "What, you don't like it? Petunia decided to give me a makeover."

He threw down a greasy old rag on the table, staring at her. "I – well, it's ..." he paused, searching for words. Lily bit her lip. James Potter couldn't find words. That was not a good sign. "It's different."

"Different?" she repeated, her hope dwindling away with her confidence, and when she looked down at herself again, she couldn't have felt more stupid.

"Well, yeah. What's it for?" he asked. He crossed to the vending machine and kicked it; two bottles of Coke dropped out, and he handed one to her.

"What do you mean, what's it for?" Lily demanded, staring into the liquid, as black as her soul.

"Well, are you trying to impress someone?" he laughed, and his laugh set her off. Suddenly she was shoving the drink back into his chest, kicking the tire and gritting her teeth in frustration.

"You are such an idiot, James Potter!"

He blinked at her, caught off guard so that he even fell back a little when she shoved him. "Hey, come on, Lil, it was a joke..."

"Trying to impress someone," she grumbled, turning away from him. "Bloody not worth my time anyway."

"You know I hate it when you start mumbling." There was amusement in his tone, and it made her even more infuriated.

"Oh well, poor you," she scowled, balling her hands into fists. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize I was being inconsiderate."

"Lily," he said calmly. "You're acting crazy. Come on, what is it? You tell me everything."

"Tell – you – !" For a second or two, she couldn't form a coherent sentence, and then she grabbed the front of his shirt, greasy or not, letting out a cry of frustration. "I was trying to impress _you, _you prat!"

She folded her arms and pouted, while he blinked in confusion. "Me?" he repeated. She nodded, staring at the ground.

"Jesus, Evans, melt, would you?" he said then, chuckling and shaking his head. That just made her worse – he was _laughing. _"I'm not talking to the ice queen."

She huffed, eyeing him coldly.

He laughed again, and then he laid his hands on her shoulders. She didn't want to admit it, but she could feel her resolve weakening. He was still smiling, that infuriating idiot. "Lily, listen." He didn't use her first name that often really. "You don't need to put on fancy clothes to impress me."

She said nothing; she just pursed her lips.

"Come on, Lily, look at me at least."

She obliged him that, blinking up at him, feeling more and more like an idiot by the second. He smiled encouragingly. "Lily. You look ridiculous. You like sneakers and hoodies and all the t-shirts you've stolen from me, and you hate lipstick and you hate skirts, and I would never want you to pretend you like all this just to get me to like you. I'm already impressed."

Her face went slack, and she shrugged his hands off her shoulders. "That's not funny."

"I'm not joking," he replied simply, and for once, Lily actually thought that that may have been the truth. "Come on, Lily, you know you don't need to do all that to make me like you," he said gently, grinning at her. "Otherwise I would have tried that ages ago."

Now her heart was starting to pound again, and she felt like a balloon was starting to inflate in her chest, and any second it would burst.

He looked awkward all of a sudden, his hand jumping to his hair. "Lily, I ... I like the way you look."

She stared at him, eyebrows slowly shooting up. "Since when?"

"Since always, you knob."

"You never said..."

"Neither did you," he pointed out. "You're not very obvious with feelings, you know."

She bit her lip, and nodded.

"This isn't you," James went on, eyeing her. "I mean, you don't need make-up or ... ridiculous skirts."

"Oi!" She hit his chest, but all he did was catch her wrist and smile down at her innocently, making her laugh.

"And I can't kiss you when you're wearing lipstick." She blinked at him, and everything seemed to stop, and suddenly all Lily was aware of was how terribly close he'd gotten all of a sudden. "But I guess I'll have to try," he went on, winking at her before tilting her chin up and pressing his lips firmly to hers. And just like he'd said, Lily melted.

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Thanks for reading! Reviews are lovely.


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